Alkalians (58 page)

Flinching from the bite of the blade,
Irene finds herself only able to receive more bites as Dante’s
agility surpasses hers. Every time she turns to point and shoot her
gun at him, he does short dashes away, then back to her from the
side or behind, the katana in his right hand swiftly slicing more
wounds upon her. When she realizes he’s toying with her, flogging
her before the audience breathlessly watching, her frustration
gives her the way out, leaping high on air balance as he sweeps
away from her. When Dante blindly returns and cuts where she once
was, she fires down into him, and the bullet’s dive pierces through
his torso, entering below the neck and exiting above his pelvis
with a burst of dark orange energy.

***

Knowing his mistake before it hit him,
Dante staggers from the heavy damage, his wounds blending with his
armor in a malevolent aura, before collapsing to his knees.
Meanwhile, smirking in satisfaction, Irene lands a few yards away,
keeping her gun locked onto her brother in his crippled
state.

Looking to her, Dante can see she is
as heavily wounded as him with tattered and torn wounds all over
her glowing a burnt orange. What makes her better off than him,
though, is none of her wounds are vital. Even when he tries to
straighten himself, the vital wound through his spine reacts,
spitting out red sparks of energy.

“
Tsk, tsk, tsk, brother,”
Irene croons, letting her marksman stance relax a little. “All of
that rage and effort, gone to waste. I was worried you may have had
me for a moment. But, naturally, you didn’t seize the opportunity,
and now you will pay for it when I ‘execute’ you before everyone
around us.” When all he does is glare back at her, she chuckles.
“Still steaming, eh? I wouldn’t blame you. It’s alright, though,
because now I will put you out of your misery. But I won’t do it by
simply shooting you. Instead, I’m going to end this with a bang.”
Holding up another grenade formed in her hand, she concludes,
“A
big
bang,”
before throwing it at Dante, and it splits into several more
grenades after one bounce that spread out towards him.

Before the net of grenades reaches
him, a silent Dante reveals that he is not ready to be put down
with a quick flick of his sword. While he couldn’t fully move
without upsetting his wound, he could gather air balance, unnoticed
by Irene, and with the flick casts out a vicious gale, catching the
grenades and blowing them back at her. Unprepared for such a
counter, all she can do is pale in her expression before the
grenades explode. Not all of the blasts reach her, but the ones
that do are enough to ravage her, ripping her wounds open in bloody
red plumes. Reeling from the damage, she manages to bring her gun
up again, and her shot is instantaneous to Dante’s air thrust
stabbing his sword through her.

In what seems like an embrace, Dante
and Irene, brother and sister, are face-to-face, his blade sticking
out of her back. Her expression frozen in a gasp, and his a grimace
set in stone, their golden eyes meet, gleaming in silence, before
both of their bodies erupt with red energy from the final wounds
each endured and they demorph. In their human forms, they are both
seized by pain, caught short of breath, and falter before falling
to the floor together with Dante lying upon Irene.

***

A very surprised and quiet crowd
stares at the pair in the arena, unsure of what would happen next,
until the announcer above declares, “Both combatants demorphed at
the same time, and are both unconscious. The first one to recover
consciousness shall be declared the winner.” The audience holds its
breath, staring with more intent, as a long minute passes with
neither sibling stirring. Then, someone gasps and points, and soon
all can see movement from the brother. As his body struggles to
push himself up, the announcer confirms, “And the winner is Dante
Goros,” and almost the whole gymnasium explodes with applause, many
of the students rising from their seats with praise.

His eyes, and whole body, still heavy,
Dante blinks at his sister yet unconscious beneath him. The fires
of his rage burnt out, he looks at her for a few seconds and
reaches to softly stroke her hair and cheek. Deaf to the huge
amount of noise being made, he whispers in a sigh, “I’m sorry,
sister. I am so sorry.” A single tear shines from his right eye,
streaking down his own cheek, as the reality of how truly damaged
Irene is weighs upon him more than his own trauma. He knows what
must be done for her, what he must do to save whatever is left of
her, as his body yet trembles with fatigue and grief while medics
arrive to attend them both.

Chapter 16

Passion and Corruption

***

After the announcement of Cynthia and
an absent Dante being the finalists for the green division, the
semifinals of the Alkalian College Championship are concluded. The
students and staff depart, and after a few days of no classes, to
give the finalists time to rest and all others to anticipate, the
final round would begin.

Later into the evening, rather than
resting, many of the students throughout the community are
partying. The casino is the busiest it has been the whole semester,
and numerous cabins are full of noise from their residents,
celebrating the big break from their studies. In some cabins, there
are complete parties going on, with music and drinking and dancing.
In other cabins, there are more secluded and private festivities
occurring.

One such cabin is among the seniors’
lot, in the apartment of the second of three floors. The most of
it, the wide living room, a kitchen off to the side, and a bathroom
down the hall on the left, is still and quiet. From the bedroom at
the end of the hall, however, comes some kind of crying gasp of
exhilaration. For a long moment after it, the sound of heavy
breathing reverberates throughout the room before the pile of
blankets and sheets on the bed, a rich brown in color, stirs and
unwraps, revealing Buster rolling off Amelia. Their bare bodies
glisten with sweat, and Buster's eyes remain fixed wide open while
Amelia arches and stretches next to him.

His eyes still wide, his chest rising
and falling with each breath, Buster says, “Wow, that was
amazing.”

Smiling, Amelia strokes back some hair
and looks at the ceiling, saying, “I’m sure it was, Buster, but you
don’t have to act so surprised.”

“
No, really, I mean it!
Damn, it’s been awhile. It’s just, I thought it’s not as
‘thrilling’ as fighting, but now I see how wrong I was!”

She chuckles at him. “Yep, how wrong,
you were.”

“
Yeah.” His expression
relaxing with one last sigh, Buster asks Amelia, “So, how’d I do,
compared to Matt?”

“
Hmm. Well, you were much
more rapid than him, and a little too forceful. Almost as good as
Matt, but still great.”

“
Just great, huh? Then
what was with the gasp near the end, there?”

“
Simple, you were actually
hurting me. Hence how it was a little too forceful.”

“
Oh! Jeez, I’m sorry,
then. I must have gotten carried away.”

“
Yes, you did. But don’t
worry about it, I can handle rough love, too. In the end, it was
all good.”

“
Ah, okay.” The two lay on
the bed for a moment, staring at the ceiling and resting their
bodies, when Buster then asks, “Why do you do it?”

“
Hmm?”

“
You know, why do you do,
uh,
this
?”

Amelia is slow to respond, turning
onto her side to face him, before saying, “I’m just good at it, I
suppose.”

“
Oh, come on, Amelia,
there must be more to it than that! It must be more than just for
the pleasure, because you are pretty picky about who you sleep
with. Am I right?”

“…
I guess.” She looks to
him, as if considering something, and then begins solemnly, “Do you
remember the Reaver Famine, about twenty years ago in
Saratu?”

“
The Reaver Famine? …Oh,
yeah! Those crazy wind storms that went and destroyed all your
crops, right?”

“
Yeah, that’s right.
Without the crops, we lost our resources for food and trade, and
the king at the time poorly responded to the crisis. It was a dark
time for us in Saratu, especially those of us in rural towns. Many
of us thought we had somehow invoked the Wind Spirit’s wrath upon
us.” She looks to the sheets, softly sliding her hand over her hip,
as she continues. “One day, a band of ruffians came into our town.
They were ruthless, but desperate for food and drink, sacking many
of our homes and gathering us all in the center of town. There were
too many of them, we couldn’t have fought them off, and with the
state wide recession there was no law to uphold in places like
ours.

“
When the thugs knew we
had no more to give them in food, they could have moved on, but
their leader got a different idea. He was tired of them roaming
from one place to another, and decided our town looked comfy and
secure enough for the lot of them to make their base of operations.
They could go out and raid more towns, then come back and rest for
the evening. And as they were settling in, the most of them wanted
to have their way with the women. I was only about six years old,
so I wasn’t old enough to be targeted. Fortunately, their boss
quickly stopped their sexual assaults, to keep them in order and
reserved for more important business. Unfortunately, he wanted the
women for himself, and announced that he should have one in his bed
every night or we would all suffer.”

Turning to face Amelia, Buster
cringes. “Sounds like it was a rough time for ya. So, what
happened?”

“
Well, we were all still
terrified of the raiders, and this final demand from their leader
put all of the women into sheer grief and fear. But then, to
everyone’s surprise, one of them stepped forward, knelt to the boss
thug, and gave herself up to be his concubine every evening, to
take the place of all the others. She was Esther Rotin, my
mother.”

“
Whoa, what? Your
mom
gave herself up,
like that?”

“
Yes, she did. And the
boss, either impressed by her bravery or bemused by her simple
beauty, accepted her. And that’s how it was for awhile. The raiders
would come back every evening, and my mother would serve them and
the boss, all by herself, and then satisfy his cruel tastes until
the morning. The rest of the villagers both tabooed her, unsettled
she had the nerve to give herself to the thug’s whims, and admired
her, for her sacrifice spared all the other women from the same
fate.”

“
Damn. And what did you
think of her?”

“
To be honest, I was very
confused. I understood enough that something bad was happening to
her every night, but every morning after she would come back, tired
and bruised, and assure me that everything was okay. Plus, while
the rest of the village barely survived off the scraps of whatever
the raiders brought back, she got more than her fair share of food
from the leader thug, and so she and I were in better conditions.
But we all still lived in fear and dread, I knew that, and many
prayed feverishly for a miracle, for something to free us from this
misery. And then, one day, our prayers were answered.”

“
Oh? How so?”

Now smiling a little, Amelia tells
him, still staring into the past, “A lone stranger came wandering
into our town. He didn’t look like much, in his ragged clothes and
black cape, but we soon found out that he was a ranger of Saratu.
While most of the villagers wanted him to hurry away, fearing the
thugs would catch and kill him when they came back, it was my
mother, again, who stepped up and offered him our small house to
stay in, assuring him fresh food and drink despite our harsh times.
He gladly accepted, and that afternoon, as I watched in wonder from
the other room, my mother happily served him, they talked for
awhile, and then they were kissing and making love.

“
When evening came, my
mother left to serve the returning raiders, but the ranger stayed
in our place, being awfully calm and quiet. He tried a few times to
talk to me, but I was terribly shy of this stranger, especially
since my mother had so quickly taken him in and pleasured him. A
few more days went by of this arrangement, my mother being with him
in the day and with the thugs at night, until he suddenly got up
and left. I, and many of the villagers, thought to never see him
again. But then, that very night, after the raiders had come back
and were sleeping, he returned. And this time, he wasn’t
alone.

“
Leading other rangers and
mercenaries, he and his company rushed through the town and routed
the thugs, capturing those who surrendered and killing those who
resisted before they knew what was going on. And as for the leader
thug, when all the dust had settled, we learned he had been killed,
too. By my mother, in his sleep. It finally, literally dawned on us
that morning what had happened. My mother had informed the ranger
of our plight, and with information she got from the boss
coordinated with the ranger to bring about the liberation of our
town.”

Buster is awed by the end of Amelia’s
story when he says, “Wow. That was well done, by your mother. She
must have been a strong and clever woman.”